Enforcement Directorate.
Credit: PTI Photo
Assets worth more than Rs 3 crore belonging to a former Rajasthan Public Service Commission member and some alleged agents have been attached as part of a money laundering investigation into a teacher recruitment "scam" of the state, the Enforcement Directorate said on Monday.
A provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has been issued on August 18 to attach the properties of Babulal Katara (ex-member RPSC), Suresh Kumar alias Suresh Bishnoi, Suresh Dhaka, Bhupendra Saran, Anil Meena alias Sher Singh Meena and others, the central agency said in a statement.
The total value of the attached assets is Rs 3.11 crore. The agency did not specify the specific value of assets belonging to each one of the accused.
The investigation pertains to the alleged leakage of the General Knowledge subject question paper of the senior teacher grade-II competitive examination, 2022, that was to be conducted by the RPSC on December 21, 22 and 24 that year, at various places in Rajasthan.
The ED said Katara 'leaked the said question paper and sold it to Anil Meena alias Sher Singh Meena who further supplied them to Bhupendra Saran, Suresh Dhaka and other agents.' 'The leaked paper was provided to candidates for a consideration of Rs 8-10 lakh per candidate,' it alleged.
The said leaked paper was provided to about 150 candidates in Udaipur and 30 candidates in the state capital Jaipur, the ED said.
The accused people, the agency said, were involved in various malpractices such as "paper leak racket and setting of dummy candidates in competitive exams." The money laundering case stems from FIRs filed by the Rajasthan Police against the accused.
The Rajasthan Police special operations group (SOG) arrested Katara and others in this case investigation.